Opinions on this PC for SL

I know this gets asked a lot, but I am really not a tech person so I thought I would ask for assistance. Could someone look over these specs and tell me if it's good for SL? Thanks for any help.

HP Firebird 802 Desktop with Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9400
Process or Speed: 2.66GHz
System Bus: 1333MHz
Cache Memory: 6MB on die Level 2
System Memory: 4 GB
Type of Memory: PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive Type: Serial ATA 95400 rpm)
Hard Drive Size: 500GB
Graphics: Dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S cards
Video Memory: 1GB

Price: $1,299

There's more but this seems to be the important stuff.

Thanks again.

It will work just fine.

Yep - looks good to me.

If you're using XP or some other 32-bit OS, you're not going to be able to use all that memory, though - it will max out around 3GB..

Thanks to you all for looking it over.

I should have included that it is Vista Home Premium 64-bit ith SP1 preloaded.

You should be pretty happy with it then... (when SL itself is working, that is)

The specs look good. If it were me, though, I would steer clear of the machine for four reasons:

1. Small form factor PC's like this can be hard, if not impossible, to upgrade. You'll never be able to add another internal hard drive to this machine or increase its RAM, and it's pretty unlikely you'd be able to change the video cards.

2. The PCI-E slots are only x8. The standard is x16. That means right away that your graphics processing speed effectively will be cut in half, as the socket will be a bottleneck. Further, all the slots in the machine are "mini socket" slots, meaning they won't take standard sized cards. It will be difficult and expensive to find anything that can go in those slots, should you ever wish to expand the machine's capabilities.

3. The GeForce 9800S is kind of an oddball. It was totally unheard of before the Firebird, and I think HP is still the only one using it. It's somewhere in between a desktop card and a mobile card. The positive sales-pitch description of it is that it's smaller and uses less power than a desktop card, but performs better than a mobile card. The obvious, equally true, reverse side of that coin is that it performs worse than a normal desktop card, but is stuck in a machine that is not portable like a laptop would be. To me, sacrificing power without gaining portability is a lose-lose any way you look at it.

4. The machine is overpriced for the specs it offers. You're basically paying laptop prices, but not getting the portability to justify such higher costs. In that same $1300 range, you could get a much more powerful, far more expandable, machine, with a normal sized case.

Here are a few examples:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227135 ($20 cheaper, better CPU, double the L2 cache, double the memory, double the hard drive size, significantly better video card, tons more expansion capability, standard expansion slots for compatibility with standard components)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229083 ($300 cheaper, way better CPU, 50% bigger L2 cache, tri-channel memory, 50% more memory, much better video card, tons more expansion capability, standard expansion slots for compatibility with standard components)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229054 ($70 cheaper, better CPU, double the L2 cache, double the memory, 50% bigger hard drive, two optical drives, significantly better video card, better card reader, tons more expansion capability, standard expansion slots for compatibility with standard components)

Those are just a few I found with a really quick search of just one website. If you were to shop around more thoroughly, I'm sure there are even better deals to be had. Or you can go for the best deal of all, which is to buy parts, and put the computer together yourself. It's easier than you might think.

The ONLY reason to get that Firefbird would be if you're absolutely so in love with the looks of that funky little case it comes in that you couldn't possibly bring yourself to live without it. Otherwise, even the ugliest case in the world can just be put under the desk and forgotten about. Not that it necessarily has to be a choice, since normal sized cases can be attractive, but if it has to come down to one or the other, I'd much rather spend the same money on capabilities over aesthetics.

sigh...

I knew i should not respond to these posts when EncylopediaComputerca's like Chosen Few can speak about the critical aspects of such stuff in a refined manner.

WOW, that was a lot of information, Chosen. Thank you.

Since I understand very little of it, I think I should just pick one of these and order it.

Thanks.

good move.

Um, thanks for the compliment, I think? But don't let me scare you away. Your input is just as valuable as mine. I just tend to be more verbose than most people. It's how I was raised.




You're welcome. Good luck with whatever you decide to purchase. Let us know how it turns out.

Chosen knows the stuff!

when I first started buying PCs again after running old Apple IIs LOL

I did just that bought those over priced HP and compaq things that were near impossible to upgrade, and even not being a tech you learn as you grow and update you will be very happy with any Chosen posted for sure